R. G. LeTourneau Equipment - 1940s Film
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- čas přidán 7. 12. 2016
- This 1940s, 16m film, "Planning Your Job with LeTourneau Equipment," highlights the product line that was designed and manufactured by R. G. LeTourneau. It shows their line of dozers, scrapers, tournapulls, and cranes that were manufactured at their Peoria, IL and Stockton, CA plants. This film has some video distortion that was introduced at the time it was recorded from film to tape.
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My Dad worked for at the Toccoa, GA Plant for 30 years 8 months until its closure. Thanks for posting this part of history that many don't know what happen back in the day of moving earth.
So glad you enjoyed this snapshot of LeTourneau history, Jay. My father worked at the Peoria plant from 1940 - 1979 (38 1/2 years) and remembered when R. G. headed up the plant. He attended some of R.G.'s shop meetings as well.
I always wondered why Dad referred to scrapers as "turniples"! Now I know he was saying Tournapull! Thanks!
What didn't come out in the video is that unlike today, everything on the Tournapull was electric. The drive motors and even the lifts for the pan. The thing was steered by flipping toggle switches.
Those big snow trains could drive every wheel from the generator unit in front.
Great stuff. I can only remember "cable opperated' machinery, I did try a few RB's but never got good on them. Hydraulics are all I know, but I love machinery. Thanks for the memories.
Larry, thanks for putting this online bro! I think I saw my dad welding on one of the scrapers before RG sent my dad to Bible School to come back as the Peoria factory Chaplain.
So glad you got to see this one, Mark! Wonderful!
Made in Peoria, Ilinois, across river from Caterpillar Tractor Co. Big competitors in early 1950s.
My mother worked at the Rydlemere factory in Rydlemer Australia, Mum said the company was good to work for .I have her 5 year company pin,and all the men in the workplace were gentlemen,
Mum is 96 years old and still going strong
My uncle and stepdad both worked for Letourneau in Peoria and then Wabco after they took over Letourneau… stepdad retired around 1982.
My father also worked there from 1940 to 1979. He loved it there. It was a great working environment. So nice that some of your family also worked there. I also worked security at Wabco (Komatsu/Dresser) in mid to late 1980s. Great job while going to college.
Sreat old stuff. I love when the steam locomotive goes highballing down the track behind that earthmoving machine.
10:00 and thus the breed of crazy men who drove scrapers at frightening speeds was born.
In the 40s it was not uncommon to speed up the film to make it look like things were moving faster than they really were. Just watch some old BW movies from that era.
@@user-zm4oy6mf5z yeah but my dad and my uncle would race scrapers at 40+mph
@@theq4602 Me too, TS14 Terex's, some used to cheat by cutting judder bars or leaving "dead cows" (heaped loads) in the middle of the haul roads, funny as fk, the things young hooligans did on machines 40 years ago when they got bored!!
🤣🤣🤣😭😭👍👍@@kuhntovah
My dad, Jack worked on the tournopulls for the Snowy Mountains Scheme out if Cooma and Eucumbene in the late 50's
How interesting!
Robert LeTourneau, "A Mover of Men and Mountains". Now that was one good Christian man who Made America Great.
He sure did have put America ahead of the rest with he's designed n manufacturing so much heavy duty machinery.
When he became successful he gave away 90% of what he earned. I think he also lived in a rather ordinary house the whole time.
Our family (including four teens) is currently reading R.G. LeTourneau's autobiography a chapter-a-day at the supper table. An incredible man, an incredible life, an incredible time of our nation's history. We have lost so much of God's blessing on our land since we've turned against Him as a nation. I can't wait to meet Mr. R.G. when I get to heaven. I think we could have been great friends on this earth had we lived at the same time.
Keith-
@@KeithFinkFamilyFarm I thought I may be the only person in 2020 reading his books. I live in Peoria and am inspired by his life.
@@tylercarter7796 Same here. His life's story still inspires many.
I love watching the old time rigs at work. I started out running a LeTOURNEAU cat &can in 1978 I was 18years old The cat & can was55 years old
75% of the earthmoving equipment used by the Allies during WW2 was made by R.G. LeTourneau. Their air forces used a Tournapull crane that arched way over and had the wheels on a box beam that extended the same distance as the crane. It was used to pick up disabled fighters, medium and heavy bombers for towing to repair hangers or storage yards.
RG was very involved in WWII. My father worked there during that time. Thanks for the comment, Bill.
No roof, no rollbar, no windscreen, no doors, no fenders. Must've been risky. But cool machines nontheless
Great video but there is one sure thing i wouldn't wanted to have to do back then was change a flat tire on the back of one of those carry-alls and scrapers or even now..Did tires for 31yrs and those look like a nightmare to get at or i'm just missing something. Those guys were crazy operators back then.
I don't know how difficult it would have been to change tires but I've heard they were very tricky to steer.
@@larryware1 In the video the operators seem to be steering, over correcting quite a bit. Just going straight seemed a challenge and the guy spotting them where to dump at the 12:25 mark is one brave soul knowing how they steered and the speed.. Worked on their log stackers from the mid 80's and the 90's and they were a challenge especially the wheels that split in the middle..Very Dangerous..Thanks for the reply
You're welcome. I worked at this location in security in the mid to late 1980s; it was Dresser/Komatsu at that time. They still ran one of the old tourn-a-pullsl in the yard to pick up small loads. The driver explained to me how hard it was to handle. My father also worked for RG beginning in 1940 and retired from - then - WABCO in 1979.
@@larryware1 Love all the old video's of the LeTourneau equipment through the years and you do have to admit he thought outside the box for sure..I have pictures of one of the land trains that they built that is at the transportation museum in Whitehorse.Yukon. Pretty neat to see.
You didn't weekly burnish the clapper switches, maintain any equipment and it'll pay dividends
The days of building quality is gone
He pioneered using epoxy to seal the final drives instead of gaskets that would leak. He used fasteners with a double helix so they could be assembled faster.
@@user-zm4oy6mf5z RG also pioneered using welds where ever possible to eliminate nuts and bolts.
I collect antique crawlers. Anyone know where I could find one of these.
A question to anyone: Do you think the Earthmovers from back then in this video would be able to handle today's excavation & construction needs? I often wonder.
New scrapers look just like that, pulled by large ag tractors. Maybe hydraulic instead of cable controlled.
The answer is YES and the last WABCOS will still outload any new Cat today if I had money and youth I'd modernize the WABCO and save operator's kidneys, why ride a teeter tottering left side bounce?
RG LeTourneau was an amazing man and engineer and built some amazing machines, but for the life of me, I have never figured out why he was so against using hydraulics. The electric motors and controls and rack and pinion designs he used were so labor intensive to use and maintain they were almost laughable. As was mentioned, the steering on those Tournapulls was very clumsy, if not downright dangerous when they were working correctly, let alone when they got some hours on them. The electric circuits would get corroded and the contacts wouldn't work as they aged. I knew some construction guys that ran and maintained some of the later design scrapers after Terex (I think it was) bought them out and they hated them. After the contractor got finished with that job, he got rid of them in a hurry. At least with hydraulics, you can see a leak that needs to be fixed without having to use a bunch of testers. JMHO.
Hydraulics weren't reliable and were too slow in those days, his last scrapers and Haul trucks used Hydraulics.
Can you imagine if this technology updated to today &used on say Caterpillar D-11 could improve the economy of maybe gold mining.
When we talk about MAGA. This is what we are talking about!! When great American people created great American products out of necessity! Unfortunately today the idea of American exceptionalism has become a bad idea.
Notice that operator comfort was not mentioned once….I can see why